480 Hours

8 | You Don't Know a Thing About Me

Maggie Bailey

A high-pitched laugh escaped my lips as Landon noisily opened cupboards and drawers, looking for something. "I swear, after that, Liam insisted on being called Major Tom until he was at least ten years old!" Landon and I were together in my slightly humid kitchen; he was making a very fragrant soup in a pot on the stove while I put away the dishes, clumsily.

"There is no way that tough guy, Liam Bailey, insisted on being called David Bowie for the majority of his childhood!" Landon and I made eye contact and instantly I started to crack up all over again! I hated the sound of my laugh when I found something genuinely funny. To me, it sounded like a wounded hyena that had been separated from its pack, just waiting to be picked off by a predator lurking in the dark.

"I didn't say he wanted to be called David Bowie! He very specifically wanted us all to call him Major Tom as he ran around the house blaring The Best of Bowie on his portable CD player!" To my surprise, he laughed right along with me this time, almost spilling his steaming soup in the process.

Almost two weeks had passed since our early October evening together on the couch sharing secrets and accidental feelings of admiration. When he wasn't at the hospital, Landon and I were inseparable. We weren't "dating," but were definitely more than friends; and Liam definitely did not know about it.

Neither of us had exactly been looking for a relationship, but as Landon put it, "The universe definitely wasn't working against us and there was absolutely no reason for us not to be together." Of course, he was being facetious. There were literally dozens of reasons why our relationship was hopeless, the most significant being the impending doom of the New Year, when Landon would inevitably have to return to his life in the military.

Plus, there was always the unpredictable time clock on his mother's life to worry about...

Per my request however, we had yet to talk about what would happen were our relationship to make it that long. Although uncharacteristic for me, I did not want to plan out our entire relationship down to the last detail. Being a planner had not worked out for me in any of my past relationships and Landon and I already had so much working against us, I did not want to add to the stress already leading to the foreseeable demise of our relationship.

So, we were winging it, and so far, living in ignorant bliss was working.

Liam was almost always out with a woman named Ariel. I had met her only once and she seemed perfectly nice, but she was one of those Ariel's that insisted her name was not pronounced like the Little Mermaid and instead put an obnoxious amount of emphasis on the Arr at the beginning of her name like Sebastian did in the film.

I was grateful to ARR-i-el however, because with her around, Liam did not sleep at the house very often. Although prior to meeting Landon I might have considered this rude, as Landon was his friend, it also made it very easy for Landon to sneak across the hallway into my room each night the moment he heard a whimper or scream escape my lips. Like before, the nightmares seemed to subside when Landon was lying by my side, yet he insisted on starting each night off in his own room, just in case Liam surprised us both by ducking in to check on one of us.

Nothing too steamy had happened between us in that bed either. We were taking things slow and I honestly believed that the reason that our relationship had not blown up in our faces just yet. We were purposing living in naïve bliss, but soon, too soon, it was all going to fall apart.

Nevertheless, for now, we were a happy couple standing in a kitchen together making silly faces of admiration at one another from across the countertop as we ate a questionably prepared chicken tortilla soup. I had offered to help prepare it, but Landon claimed I spent too much time cooking for him and wanted to cook for me as a thank you.